1838] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



391 



inenced, more than ciilliteen inontlis auo. This is tlio 

 making of sugar from beet-roots. The reported pro- 

 fits of this business in France caused a very general 

 desire to introduce it in the northern and middle states. 

 The statements published (many of which are to be 

 seen in our pages,) seemed to promise sulUcient remu- 

 neration to the undertakers. In addition, the legisla- 

 ture of Massachusetts, in the beginning of 1837, otter- 

 ed a bounty of three cents a pound on all sugar made 

 in that state from beet-root, (see Farmers' Register 

 Vol. V, page 47.) There was then growing a strong 

 beet-root fever, which has continued since, and we 

 have no direct testimony of its abatement at this time. 

 But neither have we yet heard of any practical results, 

 or profits from the business — nor indeed whether any 

 thing has been done in it, except (according to usage,) 

 to form joint-stock companies for carrying on the cul- 

 ture and manufacture. Strangely enough, since 

 schemes of beet-root culture have been in vogue, they 

 have been regularly connected with the schemes of 

 silk-culture. Yet, what the two things have to do with 

 each other, is more than we can conceive — or what 

 they have in common, except the quality of being 

 converted into humbugs. The joint-stock companies 

 latterly formed for silk-culture, or proposed and an- 

 nounced in the newspapers, have very generally added 

 the making of beet-root sugar to their objects, and the ti- 

 tle of the association. This incongruous yet very gene- 

 ral connexion has been even carried into the proceed- 

 ings of the congress of the United States ; and a long 

 and detailed report has been sent forth from the Com- 

 mittee of Agriculture, on the cultivation of the "Mul- 

 berry and Sugar-Beet, " in a pamphlet of 51 octavo 

 pages ; of which many thousands have been printed 

 and circulated, to add to the profit of the government 

 printer, and to help the nursery-men, whose letters are 

 there published, to sell their mulberry plants. With so 

 much encouragement, direct and indirect, by both state 

 and federal government, it is truly surprising that both 

 the silk-culture and beet-sugar-manufacture should be 

 still unable to give evidence of life, or to make any 

 figure, except in reports of the formation of joint- 

 stock companies, and their intended operations. 



It will, perhaps, be inferred, though very erroneous- 

 ly, from the general tenor of the foregoing remarks, 

 that we have no faith in the profit of producing silk in 

 this country, nor in the legitimate profit of rearing 

 the Chinese mulberry as means for that end. Not so, 

 as to either opinion. Still, because of our endeavor- 

 ing to expose the delusion, and repress the misdirected 

 zeal, and speculating spirit, which have been built 

 upon the true and solid claims of this business to ap- 

 probation, we expect nothing more than to be consi- 

 dered as opposing, throughout, the culture of silk as 

 altogether unprofitable, and the Chinese mulberry as 

 ■worthless; and its being raised by any one as an evi- 

 dence of his being either a knave, or a dupe of knaves. 

 It seems that moderate, qualified, and discriminating 

 approbation of agricultural opinions and practices, is 

 no more tolerated, by most persons, than similarly 

 limited approval of the political men and measures 

 that they sustain. Every man is required, whether on 

 agricultural or political subjects, to "go the whole 

 hog," and to approve or condemn, as entirely as does 



a blind or bought political partizan. Qualified and 

 limited approval, is considered as but "damning wilh 

 faint praise " We theretbre do not expect to leave tiie 

 impression on readers in general, that we are friendly 

 to, and strongly in favor of, the commencement and 

 extension of silk culture. This expected misappre- 

 hension cannot be entirely guarded against, and we 

 shall not take much trouble to avoid it, or lessen its in- 

 fluence. We will merely state, that we have no pri- 

 vate interest whatever in discouraging silk-culture; and 

 that we have some small private inteiest the opposite 

 way, inasmuch as we are preparing to come into the 

 market with multicaulis trees and cuttings, as soon as 

 we can furnish them at one-fourth of the present prices. 



We certainly doubt the fitness of the climate 

 of the northern states for profitable silk-culture ; and 

 more than doubt the fitness of that cold and inhospita- 

 ble region for so tender a plant as the nwrus imilticau- 

 lis. But we fully believe in the suitableness of the 

 slave-holding states for both ; and we are confident 

 that fair trials will show very profitable results. And 

 if the doubts and disbelief just expressed, are indeed 

 unfounded and unsound, and New England is, in truth, 

 well adapted for silk-culture, then, a fortiori, so much 

 the more profitable must it be in Virginia, because of 

 our warmer and longer summers. We have also other 

 advantages (which we have several times before 

 urged) in our far cheaper land, and cheaper slave-la- 

 bor. Many slaves could be producers who now are 

 merely consumers. We are now, as heretofore, and 

 as also frequently expressed, anxious that the business 

 of raising silk shall be properly commenced and pur- 

 sued in Virginia ; yet we have but little favor for, or 

 confidence in, the new-born zeal for raising mulberry 

 plants merely to sell at great profit, to other persons, 

 who will buy them with precisely the same object. It 

 is but a new type of that spirit which showed itself in 

 the Merino sheep mania, which formerly prevailed, 

 and in the far more injurious rac-horso-breeding ma- 

 nia, which is now at an unprecedented height in Vir- 

 ginia. 



The morus multicaulis is undoubtedly a most choice 

 variety, and it ofl'ers greatly increased facilities to the 

 young silk-cujturist. Whoever is desirous of com- 

 mencing the silk business, and is without mulberry 

 trees, or enough of them, ought certainly to plant this 

 kind in preference ; because from its ease of propaga- 

 tion, and rapid growth, it can more speedily supply 

 enough food for the worms. Moreover, from the larger 

 size of the leaves, they are gathered with much less 

 labor; and from their superior nutritive quality, a less 

 weight will serve to feed a given number of worms. 

 It is also said to produce the finest and best silk. This 

 ma)' be so ; but it is far from being satisfactorily esta- 

 blished. And even if so, a countervailing objection, 

 held by some in France, is, that the fibres are weaker 

 than silk produced from other kinds of mulberry leaves. 

 But neither this nor any other foreign kind is indis- 

 pensable. If the new beginner has enough of the na- 

 tive mulberry, (morus rubra,) though it has been pro- 

 nounced, and generally admitted, to be worthless, com- 

 pared to the white, and Chinese, we would advise him 

 to proceed to raise and feed the worms, without wait- 



